Saturday, February 28, 2009

Our Apartment

The one wall is decorated with butterflies.

Yesterday, Bryan and I made it to our apartment in Daejeon. Bryan's co-teacher from Taepyoung Middle School and a teacher from my school, Oryu Elementary School, took us to the apartment. From what I understood, my co-teacher was not able to be there due to some other engagement, but supposedly she is my age and very good at English. I hope she is better with English than the teacher I met, she was very sweet and we talked a lot, but she does not really seem to know where she is going. She kept saying, "oh, oh, oh, I am so stupid, i not so smart," after we'd get lost, and after a while I started to agree with her...Really, she was so nice and I told her we should go out together, but why doesn't she know how to get around her own city? Also, she took us to Costco for lunch which was bizarre...oh well, I do not mean to sound whiney or ungrateful because she was a great deal of help. She also thinks that Bryan is a very handsome guy and she kept saying how she envies our relationship because she has nothing! Geez, I started to feel really bad after a while because of some of the things she would say:

"I have too much work to do!"

"I come to costco everyday and eat pizza! I am a big piggy!"

"Today I am going to get the hot dog set."

Just things like that.

Anyways, the landlord of our apartment is a professor of Micro-Biology at the Hye Cheon University. His English is pretty good but it was definitely interesting to meet him. He wore a suit, purple shirt, purple-patterned tie, a fedora, and in order to match his face to his color scheme, he had a giant shiner over his right eye. I wish I took a picture of him.

I cannot help but think that EPIK tried their hardest to save some money on us because our apartment is clearly meant for one person. It is kind of like student housing and it is smaller than a studio apartment in Minneapolis. However, a lot of students from the near by university live here so it is nice to see younger people around.

The bathroom is teeny tiny. Yes that is the shower above the sink and toilet. Koreans are good at working

with condensed spaces. Our co-teachers taught us about wearing bathroom slippers and I took a shower this morning and I really think it is not so bad, but I do miss having a bath tub. Am I supposed to have a special towel to wipe the toilet down after a shower? One thing that is not really talked about is the fact that people here do not put toilet paper into the toilets. In most public bathrooms there are garbages next to the toilets containing used t.p. which actually kind of freaked me out a bit, but whatever. Apparently the plumbing is to blame. So I do not know if we are supposed to follow this or not, but I have not. At least we do not have a squatter toilet.

(Ooo! Project Runway Korea is on t.v.! That is much better than the fat people show that was on earlier.)

The kitchen has a small fridge, a hot plate, a sink and a washing machine. They really knew how to bend the rules because we were promised a gas range stove, but it is down the hall with the water cooler. We do have free internet provided, an air conditioner, ondol heated flooring that gets the place all cozy, and cable access television. So, I cannot complain really except for the fact that Bryan and I have to live in one room together for a whole year, he has been snoring a lot lately;) Right now we have a lot of wet clothes drying on the floor because there is no dryer but it is all part of the steps we are taking to feel at home here.

Today, we spent the day roaming around downtown. It was fun. We ate sullungtang and Bryan almost got pressured into buying some $280 shoes by the aggressive salespeople of the Say Two Department Store. Those shoes were hottie tottie and even though the salesman told us he could buy them for $100 cheaper, it was still too much. Sorry!

So we just got back a little bit ago, I am going to try to work on a lesson plan for Monday because I am getting kind of nervous about teaching. The amazing thing is that my school put together a brand new English Fun Zone!! Brand new boards, brand new desks and chairs, and brand new everything. The rest of the school needs to be updated, but it has a lovely smell of cedar. So, I will be in that classroom all the time instead of moving from homeroom class to homeroom class. NICE!

Bryan is hungry so we are going to grab a bite at the place across the way! Later dudes.